Very good piece in the Wall Street Journal on how the current economic crisis is impacting the unemployed in Germany and the US very differently. Now the rate of unemployment in both Germany and the US is roughly the same - 8.5% - but the lack of a meaningful safety net in the US means that the misery index here is much higher. The article also illustrates why the dire warnings of "social unrest" in Germany are off base.
Life is very different for Dylan DeRoberts, an unemployed auto worker in Rockford, Illinois than it is for Alfred Butt, who lost his factory job in Hohenlockenstedt:
In Germany, losing his factory job didn't stop Alfred Butt from taking a Mediterranean vacation this winter. Thanks to generous jobless benefits, being out of work "hasn't changed my life that much," Mr. Butt says.
In the U.S., Dylan DeRoberts lost similar work -- but there's no seaside getaway for him. Instead, he's giving up life's little pleasures, like riding his snowmobile, because he lost his insurance, too. "I've learned to live at a new level," Mr. DeRoberts says.
The article highlights the biggest difference between the quality of life in both countries. In the US, the economic recession is creating a full-scale crisis in health care, as millions of workers, like Mr. DeRoberts, have lost their health insurance.
For Mr. Butt, losing his job as a raw-materials buyer for a German auto-parts maker was a serious blow. But state benefits will replace the bulk of his salary until May 2010. And he still has full medical insurance under Germany's universal system.
Mr. DeRoberts, who lost his job at a Chrysler assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill., near Rockford, last year, saw his medical benefits expire several months later. He says he can't afford to pay the premiums on his own.
"It's scary being without insurance," Mr. DeRoberts says, but adds: "What do I give up? Food?"
For months, leaders of the Republican Party have been trying to scare the public by warning that the United States is heading towards European-style "socialism". But millions of Americans like Dylan DeRoberts ,trying desperately to keep their families fed and healthy, are asking:"Where do I sign up?"
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